Your photograph is as good as it speaks for itself,” says renowned photographer Raghu Rai, who was in town recently for a photography workshop.
“Photography is my passion and it makes me really happy to see a wide majority of people taking up photography not just as a hobby, but even as a
profession with a creative pursuit,” says Rai. The workshop featured sessions on different aspects of photography and advanced techniques like HDR, creative lighting system and more.

Sharing his personal experiences, Rai told the audience that he took up photography in 1965, and the following year he joined The Statesman newspaper as its chief photographer. Rai left the publication in 1976 to work as picture editor for a weekly news magazine published in Calcutta. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier-Bresson, a French photographer, who is also considered the father of modern photojournalism, nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977.

Ask him what inspires him the most to click, and he says, “Life and nature, as it keeps challenging me.” His tips to young aspiring photographers is to always remember that prettiness in a photograph doesn’t matter, the beauty and the feel of the moment does. “When you work with sincerity and honesty, it is the supreme energy that keeps an eye on you,” he says.